The College News
Volume III. No. 29
BRYN MAWR, PA., MAY 30, 1917
Price 5 Onts
TUTORING SCHOOL
ON SCROON LAKE
Will Live in Bungalows
ALUMNAE SCORE CRAMMING SYSTEM
Moon Hill Camp on Scroon Lake In
the Adirondack*, for sixteen years a reg-
ular summer camp, will be transformed
this summer, for six weeks, from August
13 to September 24, into a tutoring school
for Bryn Mawr under the management
of A. MacMaBters '17. Two big bun-
galows, with small cottages nearby, com-
prise the living quarters.
Thirty-five students is the largest num-
ber which can be accommodated, and
the number and choice of teachers must
depend upon the applications. Members
of 1918 may come at any time for tutor-
ing in French and German.
Old School Travesty on Education
criticisms of the former "cramming"
school system appear in the report of
the Academic Committee of the alumnae
published in the April Alumnae Quarterly.
"The travesty on education which has
resulted from such schools and from the
tutors associated with them has almost
undermined the work of some of the de-
partments of the large universities.
��But what the Academic Committee
chiefly deplores is the detrimental effect
on the college work of students enter-
ing Bryn Mawr after this kind of prep-
aration. The college records bear out
our objections. Of sixteen students en-
tering in September, 1915 from the tu-
toring school ten failed to make their
merits in February, 1916. While it is
(Continued on page 5, column 1)
CHANGES NEXT YEAR AT
COMMUNITY CENTER
Italian Night School a Success
"Everything will be different at the
Community Center next year", said Jane
Smith '10, the Director of Center this
winter. "No one under 16 years will be
allowed to come in the evenings, so there
will be more room for the adults".
Miss Smith plans to have a corps of
emergency workers consisting of college
students who sign up at the beginning of
the year as willing to miss one concert
or play during the year and go that night
to work at the Center. This year nobody
has been there on nights of college plays.
H. Allport "17 and H. Karns "19 have
been running an Italian night school at
the Center since Easter. Until then it
had been managed by Haverford students.'
One night recently a Haverford man
strolled in "to see how many of the men
the girls had been able to hold". To his
confusion he was told that the girls h. 1
not only held the eight men left at
end of the Haverford regime, but had in-
creased the number to eighteen.
There have been about fifty regular
workers from the college at the Cei,
this year.
Summer Plant at the Center
Playground, summer school Italian
night school and other activ!-n - v. ill be
kept going at the Community Center this
summer by Mr. and Mrs Philip Rice. The
Baldwin School has offered the Center,
the use of all Its tennis courts and ath
letic fields for the summer, and It Is
possible that special preparedness classes
will be organised and the Center u-.-.l
as a headquarters for canning clubs in
the district
Mrs. Rice had charge of the Community
Center last summer. Mr Rice has had
experience in managing boys recently as
IT. H.C V worker in the Philippe
HELEN TAFT '15 NEW DEAN
Dean Schenck Prefers Scholar's Life
Helen Taft '15, daughter of ex-President
Taft, will succeed Miss Schenck as Dean
of the College next year. President
Thomas, in announcing it in chapel last
Thursday morning, said In part:
"I have to make both a sad announce-
ment and one which I hope may be happy.
Dean Schenck has decided to resign as
Dean of the College and continue her
work as Associate Professor of French.
I am sure you will all regret deeply as I
do this decision. Executive work is a
very special sort of thing. It Is impossi-
ble to tell whether you like it until you
try it. Dean Schenck has tried It fairly
this year and although she has, as you
know, been very successful, she has de-
cided that she prefers the life of a scholar
and professor. You cannot succeed in be
ing both a dean and a professor, it Is, in
my opinion, perfectly Impossible to carry
an important executive position and to do
such work as is required of a professor in
Bryn Mawr College, that Is, to teach grad
nates and undergraduates, to do research
work oneself and to direct the research
work of others. Every one has to choose
her life work for herself and so, I think,
that we shall all agree that If Dean
Schenck wishes to lead a scholar's life it
is wise for her to reach this decision
much as wo regret it. It is at the same
time pleasant to remember that the great
loss to the dean's office and to the execu-
tive work of the college will be the mtt
gain of our French Department. I am
sure that those of you who have taken, or
who expect to take, French will feel, as I
do, that the French Department is much
to be congratulated.
Now for my happy announcement. The
Board of Directors has unanimously
elected as Dean of the College Miss Helen
llerron Taft, who is known to many of
you. It seems to us very desirable to
have In the Dean's office one of our
younger alumna', who will develop with
the college and will help the college to
keep close to modern conditions of edu-
cation. Miss Tc.lt is only a year and a
half younger than I was when appointed
Dean of Bryn Mawr College. She is only
two years younger than Dean Iteilly was
We do not think she is too young. Mor -
over, her three years in the White Ho.se
spent in helping her mother to entoitain
have made her more mature than Is in-
dicated by her years. She is personally
known to many of the younger alumna-
because the classes of miJ, V, 14, 1.",. n;.
n" I 17 were in the college #lth her.
5he entered as a fres1.1 .an :n l'.'OS, and
was here two years and it was during her
second year in Bryn .Mawr College that
her father was elected President of the
United States. As her mother was not
very well it was necessary for Miss Taft
to leave the college to help her mother
in entertaining at the White House. At
the end of three years she returned here
to continue her studies. It Is very un-
usual. 1 am sorry to say. for a student
who leaves Bryn Mawr College for so
long a time to come back and take up
again serious study, but Miss Taft is a
genuine student. She returned in LSI]
and took her degree in 1915, magna cum
laude, without a single grade below nieru
-really wonderful achievement when you
think that three very full years in the
White House in which there could not
he mil iunity for study were inter
posed in the middle of her college <��"
Many of you will remember her as one
leading debaters In the public din- i
ntlnued on page 2. column 4�
ENDOWMENT FUND
COMPLETED OVER NIGHT
$700 Goes to Alumnae Fund
The $106 raised over night by 1920 has
brought the Endowment Fund up to the
$10,000 mark pledged In 1915-1916. and
has won the $700 offered on Its comple-
tion. This $700 will go Into the Alumna?
Endowment Fund.
The freshmen made this final spurt be
cause they had not contributed as much
previously as the other classes. At the
last moment 1919 gave $40.
H. Harris '17 was chairman of the En-
dowment Fund Committee and (',. Malone
(Continued on page 2, column 2)
M. Scatter good '17, Establishing New
Distance in the Hurl Ball
fctiiw
**�'%
ATHLETIC DAY A
RECENT INSTITUTION
Three Years Champion Wins Special
Cup In Track
CUPS AND YELLOW TIPS AWARDED
The celebration of the fifth Athletic
Day In the history of the college will
start next Wednesday morning at 9.30
with the Mumme proceislOB to the
lower hockey field. The Alumna? march
In costume, arranged by nJastM. tOgethfil
with the Alumna1 and Varsity basket
ball teams whose annual match is the
second event on the program. After the
Alumna? game comes the final feature
of the Athletic Day. the announcenic nt
by the president of the Athletic Associa-
tion of the various championships and
the awarding of cups, swimming medals,
and yellow ties.
In previous years the cups and prizes
were awarded after Senior Singing on
the night of Garden Party, hut the dark
ness and lateness of the hour made th �
reremony so unsatisfactory that In 1913
an Inventive Athletic Board hit upon the
idea of combining the awarding of cups
with the Alumna? gam*- and an Alumna>
procession: thus Athletic Day was In
stltuted. Since 1913 It has been held
out-doors on the day before Commence-
ment every year, except in 1915 when it
rained and was held during College
Breakfast.
Track Champion Wins Special Cup
Among the awards this year is a
cial cup to be presented to H. Harris
'17. track champion The regular cup
for the Individual track championship
preaentc.1 by IMT, has been won by
H Harris for the last three years, but
can only be held In college so that a
Track Champion Clearing the Bar at
Record Height of 4 ft. 1% in.
special cup to be held for good will be
| given her by the Athletic Board. The
1 last person to win track three years
was II Ktnerson 1911, The cup for the
class championship in track will go to
1917.
The basket ball lantern, presented by
1896, to the class winning the first team
championship is the oldest trophy award-
ed on Athletic Day and was first won
for three years by the class of 1897.
which is celebrating its twentieth re-
union and whose example in lust team
basket ball has been follow. mJ this spring
by the present champions. 1917. The
second team basket-ball cup, presented
by the Athletic Association, goes to 1M0
as do the fourth and fifth team chain-1
pionships. 1918 wins the third team cup,
presented by 191."..
Two new cups were awarded last year:
the Alumna'-Varsity tennis cup presented
in 1916 by c. Wesson '"!) and won by the
Aliimme. and the cup presented by Miss
Applebee in honor or the .lass of 1'iif, t0
the class winning the all-round athletic
.hanipionship. This will almost cer-
tainly go again to IMI At the present
datfl \'-'\". leads 192(1 by four points and
has a good chance of securing a com-
fortable margin from the B. M.'s still
to be awarded In tennis, water polo, and
basket ball.
The swimming cup. presented by |M7,
will be awarded to 1920 for winning the
meet with a total of 57 points. The cup
for the Individual nrinUBfni champion
�DM to tWO freshmen. K. Towns.n.l and
M. S. Carey. They each broke iwo r*C
ords ami won one fourth place. K. Town
-end establishing new time in both the
-wim on front and M. S I ar.-y in both
the swims on back.
In water-polo there is but one cup,
for lir-t t.am .�hanipionship. presented
by 1110 and won this year by 1917. In
hockey there are three, first team, pres-
ented by 1905 and won by 1917; second
team, presented by tbe Athletic Associa-
tion and won by 191M. and third team
presented by 1914 and won by 1919.
Fourth and fifth team hockey champion
ships are divided, fourth between 1917
and 1920, and fifth between 1919 and
1920.
The former Athletic presidents whose
class.- are re lining this year and who
are likely to take part in Athletic Day
are K. Williams Althorp o;. r. fha
llinton '12. I. < adhury 'H. I Z.-.kwei
tBd M. Branson l>: I-'.; is re uning
hut a junior. F Kin.ke us. was president
their senior year.
(Continued oti pajpi :. , ..lutim li